This application is a detailed specification of U.S. Non-Provisional application No. 62280027 filed on Jan. 18, 2016 and an application Ser. No. 15/407,272 filed on Jan. 17, 2017 having title “TRAINING PISTOL”; the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Firearms are the great equalizer empowering the physically weak and allowing nations to empower the populace to be the ultimate checks and balances. Firearms are ingrained in United States culture embedded with the Second Amendment and exemplified by significant increase in firearms sales in recent years.
The firearm is a tool, it is by itself an inert device that cannot do anything upon its own accord. The latest technological developments in firearm quality ensures the gun will not go off unless the trigger is pulled. The ergonomic design of firearms substantially ensures the trigger will not get pulled unless the finger is in that trigger guard and presses the trigger rearwardly with respect to the frame of a handgun. Proficiency is inextricably intertwined with safety. The more proficient a firearm handler is the more the safe they will be. In a similar vein as driving an automobile, the more practice, the more handling, the more situations all breeds better driving. Although driving is plagued with distraction which is a primary cause for accidents, firearms have further growth in the area of training to further increase safe handling with the firearm. Generally speaking, most shooters have an awareness of the extreme and immediate energy a firearm can produce. This energy of course can be used for self-defense and a plurality of firearm competitions. But the firearm culture needs a practical means for training where training is accessible, convenient, inherently diagnostic.
One very practical safety-related skill is keeping the finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. The patent application which is owned by the assignee U.S. Pat. No. 8,646,201 describes the first version of the very commercially successful SIRT training pistol. The application herein describes the next generation of the SIRT training pistol which are broadly defined within the claims, but one aspect of the disclosure herein is heavy emphasis on the trigger movement detector so when the firearm handler presses the trigger there is an indication as to when and, essentially, where (how far) the trigger was depressed. In one form this is an adjustable feature so as to allow for a laser to activate when the trigger is first depressed all the way to when it is fully prepped or even beyond the break point.
One skill required in law enforcement and other individuals required to carry a pistol (as well of course the massive private sector and dedicated citizens that choose to carry a gun) is keeping the finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. It is unfortunately not uncommon where a shooter will place their finger on the trigger at an inappropriate time. For example, when the lights go off there is a higher probability that the firearm handler may put their finger on the trigger and “feather” the trigger almost as if they're making sure the trigger is still there. This can be very dangerous because the firearm handler can clench and have an up to twenty-pound force in the trigger finger which is more than ample to ignite the firing process. Of course the fundamental safety rules are redundant and if the gun is pointed in a safe direction the expelled round should not do harm; however, the rules are by their very nature completely redundant and an unintentional discharge in this manner is a significant breech of proper gun handling.
Training has to be practical, has to be economical and not require significant resources. There are over 18,000 law enforcement departments ranging from state to federal in the United States. Most of these departments are smaller departments such as local cities and sheriff police agencies. The firearm instructor likely has other duties and obligations and budgets are always tight where training is prone to get reduced unfortunately.
Therefore, having an economic solution with inert training pistols that are safe and multifaceted where in one form the training pistol can be adjusted so as the trigger will activate a laser when it is slightly touched. Therefore, for example if a police agency is doing house entry training in a stack where multiple officers are behind one another preparing to enter a room, a trainer or even the fellow officers will be able to know when one of the officers “feathers” a trigger by activation of the laser. This is particularly pronounced in low light training. Not only is the laser on but the laser beam generally pointed forward of the muzzle can indicate the general orientation of the muzzle when the trigger was pressed or even partially pressed.
Therefore, as much as speed and accuracy has to be emphasized, the very fundamental training tenets of “finger off the trigger 'til ready to shoot” has to be ingrained in the training and technology has to support these training tenets. But in addition to the ingrained safety training within a training regimen, the raw skills of speed and accuracy, grip establishment, natural point of aim in close targets, the use of sights at further targets and knowing when to use sights, trigger control (the ability to break a shot without disturbing the muzzle). Then of course a plurality of skillsets as reloads, slide lock stimulus recognition (to be trained with live fire pistols) single hand manipulation including single hand malfunction clearances, single hand reloads, etc. Then training expands to other areas such as compromised/awkward shooting positions, prone shooting, supine prone as well as rollover prone (getting on the ground) as well as general visual awareness in ensuring there's no liabilities down range. There's so many areas to train and resources are limited.
The device disclosed herein is an inert pistol designed to train a majority of these skillsets safely. Of course recoil management, slide lock stimulus and malfunction recognition and clearance are skills that have to be trained on the range. These skills require the raw kinetic energy inertia of a firing bullet to train properly and the only space to train these three skills is with a live fire tool. The remainder of the skills can be trained off the range in very high volume and very frequently. High volume (frequent) trainings is an ideal way for learning motor neuron skills. Shooting is primarily motor neuron endeavor but also a very cognitive one as well. The motor neuron skills of establishing a grip knowing when you can shoot with minimal reference to the sights by the feel of the grip and further knowing your limitations of your point shooting to know when you have to rely on the sights. This skill requires thousands upon thousands of repetitions. It is a fool's journey to only build this skill on the range. Dry firing has been around since the dawn of guns. Dry firing is simply not firing a round but going through the motion of aligning the muzzle, supporting the firearm and pulling the trigger without the boom. A live fire gun has some potential risks of a round going off. A dedicated dry fire tool aids in the safety of dry firing and further simply makes dry firing more accessible because an inert tool such as that described herein can be around the house, training room, etc. and not have the same practical legal implications as with a live fire tool (simply because a live fire gun is a serial numbered federal firearm licensed device and losing it has more implications than losing an inert tool that cannot fire a round).
Therefore, the inert tool described herein has a plurality of uses. In essence, do what you do with your live fire gun but do it dry and do it safely and do it a lot. Train the skills (noted above) throughout your day even in 10-second short trainings, unearth the deficiencies, note the impact of the shot-indicating laser and determine was it a good hit or bad hit. Did the laser move showing a trigger mechanic issue (moving the muzzle and breaking the shot) or was it a nice clean dot? Was the dot right in the target area (acceptable accuracy zone) or was it outside? The assignee is an entity dedicated to training and raising the bar of proficiency which inherently raises the safety. And one subset of training is the dedicated focus on the fundamental safety rules and ingraining these safety rules into the fabric of the training curriculum. The trigger prep indication system can be used for performance aspects of prepping the trigger at an appropriate time (that is taking the slack) as well as dedicated training segments ensuring the trigger is not pressed at all at inappropriate times.
The training benefits are beyond the scope of this patent document but the preferred embodiment is described herein where of course it is understood that other forms of the broadly claimed invention can be carried out but clearly remain within the scope of the claims herein.